Address locator failed to create with the error message: Unable to store the address locator. Locator cannot be validated[Unhandled application error]

Description

Note:
This issue is addressed with ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

Cause

This is a bug for ArcSDE 9.3: Creating address locators fails in ArcSDE if numeric fields in the SDE reference feature class contain null values.
The issue has been corrected in ArcSDE 9.3 Service Pack 1. See the Related Information section below for ArcSDE 9.3 Service Pack 1.

Workaround

• Apply the ArcSDE 9.3 Service Pack 1.
• If it is not possible to install ArcSDE 9.3 at this moment, one of the following methods can be used to work around this issue:
  1. Convert the numeric fields into text fields, and use the text fields to build the address locator.
  2. Create the locator in a file or personal geodatabase, and copy the locator to the ArcSDE database.